My day to day life

Painting in Nashville November 7, 2011

Over the weekend we went to Nashville to visit with Phil’s mother, Linda. We haven’t been in awhile decided to pack up and leave on last Friday. We left the dogs at the house for the first time, we normally always just take them but my brother-in-law and his girlfriend were staying in town and didn’t care to watch them. I hope :) Sometimes, it feels like we are parents of 5 children (3 dogs, 2 cats) and need to get away, alone, even for a few days away from the kids.

It was nice just spending time together even if it was just running errands and fixing things around the house. On Sunday, Phil left to meet up with his dad for half of the day which left me and my mother-in-law with nothing to do. She has taken painting classes before and I have always wanted to try one but never had the time. The class she normally goes to is called Sips and Strokes. You can bring your own wine and enjoy a painting class for $25. Sounds entertaining, but the painting they were doing that day was Christmas themed and I really didn’t want a Christmas tree hanging in my house all year long. Then, she remembered another place called Wine and Easel. It was pretty much the same idea but the painting they were doing was a coffee cup. Perfect, I could hang that in the kitchen. We signed up online and with a $5 coupon code it was only $20 + tax.

The class started at 2:00 and we arrived about 10 minutes early. There were about 20 people in the class and 2 art instructors. It was set up like a classroom with about 5 rows of tables on the right and left with 4 chairs per table. The canvas, apron, paints, and brushes were all ready set up for you. Once the class started, we were instructed to trace the cup and then you had free range of how you wanted to paint the rest of the picture. I was a little stocked. I thought we were going to be taught how to paint the painting but the teacher just kept saying “the painting should express who you are, everyone’s will be different.” I was thinking I hope this isn’t what I am; I bunch of colors smashed together and looking like a mess. My mother-in-law wasn’t enjoying her painting at all. She said she had never been to a class like that. Her instructors before would show you how to do each step and they took their time. Ours seemed like he was in a hurry and stood in front of the canvas so we couldn’t see a thing he was doing and his “assistant” never said one word to us. With all of that, I think our paintings turned out pretty good but we are going to try the other place next time.